The Journey of Parenthood…

Wedding Weekend: Reception

By the time we got McDonalds and then got to the Kingfish Grill Kye was passed out! Poor thing was so sleepy! We decided that I would go ahead and go in (the reception started at 2:30 but the bride and groom wouldn’t arrive until 3:30) and Zach would stay in the car while Kye slept some. Then Zach came in and Mrs. Charlotte stayed out at the car with Kye! He actually ended up getting over an hour nap, pretty awesome 🙂

My brother LOVES to fish and something he and Chrissy share is this love. It was super cute that they had little swedish fish favors for the guests and it went well with the reception site as it over looked the river.

While waiting for the bride and groom to arrive it was nice to get to mingle with family! Some people I rarely get to see and people from my dad’s side hadn’t even met Kye! Again I was blown away by everyone remembering his birthday! People even brought him gifts at the reception 🙂 It was especially nice to get to visit with Kori (my half sister), Ryan (my half brother) and his family, and their mom, Bobbi as I don’t get to see them as often I see Mom’s side of the fam. I know that sounds strange that we are close to my Dad’s second wife but we just always have been. They divorced mutually and I guess that allowed them to stay friends! She’s another one of those people that made my day! She’s a blog reader (Hey Bobbi!) and hugged my neck and told me that she’s proud of me. She’s known me my whole life and can remember me being that bratty little kid that I’m sure I was and it meant so much to me to hear that she not only is interested in what’s going on in my life but that she’s PROUD of who I am! 🙂 Mrs. Charlotte even told me later that she had a talk with Bobbi and that she said many great things about both Zach and I. Isn’t that a nice thing to hear?

Bobbi with her husband, Bob (I know matching names!!!)

Cousins: Caylin, Me, Sabrina and Susi

with Auntie Amy and Uncle Joe who I grew up with in Lawrencville and miss bunches!

with Anne and Julia (my nieces) and my sister Kori

Once Brandon and Chrissy arrived the festivities really got going! Jason was super nervous about giving his best man toast but I thought he did GREAT! Here it is so you can judge for yourself (He said that he was so nervous that he hunted on YouTube for some examples so I told him I’d add his toast on YouTube as the “BEST best man toast” haha!) They then opened the floor to let anyone say something who wanted to and Mom and Dad both said something (as did Chrissy’s dad). I taped Mom’s so here’s her video but didn’t get pictures and I took pictures of Dad’s but didn’t get video oh well!


introducing the bride and groom!

reading all the messages

Dad’s toast

enjoying all the toasting

After all the toasting was done it was time for the dancing! Brandon and Chrissy had their first dance as a typical dance then when it ended it faded into a line dance and they started dancing a dance they had practiced to do together! I wish I’d known it was coming as then I could have gotten the entire thing on the video but here is part of it. And here’s the second line dance they did after that one! I thought that it was SUCH a cute idea and so sweet that they practiced that together! While they were dancing, KYE was dancing. Of course I was trying to video them so I didn’t really catch the greatest video of Kye but here is my attempt 🙂

my dancin’ man

Mother and Son Dance (they danced to Garth Brooks “The River”)

once everyone started dancing Kye joined in!

The reception was a rather long one (2:30-almost 8!) so they spread everything out which was good for me since I don’t drink or dance but I wanted to stay the whole time to see everything and visit with everyone. (Just FYI b/c I know ppl will ask…I don’t think it’s a sin to drink or dance. The Bible says it’s wrong to be drunk and it says to be a good example to others so we choose not to drink at ALL b/c we don’t feel like there is a clear definition of what being drunk is, we’d rather be “safe than sorry,” we want to be good examples to others, and it’s expensive! Also dancing is FINE, of course the humping kind is probably causing lust which is a sin, but I just don’t dance b/c I’ve never enjoyed it…but it’s not a religious decision.) Zach left rather early on as he is not comfortable being around a lot of drinking and he went back to the room (the hotel was RIGHT next to the reception site!) as did Mrs. Charlotte and Kye (Mr. Rusty went on home). Brandon did a little speech before cutting the cake and here’s a video of that (you can tell everyone was starting to feel pre-tay good at this point.)

Mrs. Charlotte and her date

getting some kisses before he went bye-bye

Zach and Mr. Rusty before they left

their carrot wedding cake (SO pretty…Publix ROCKS!)

cutting into it

feeding each other

taking off the garter

I have to pause here to tell about this kid I met for the first time while at the wedding, his name is Brandon and he’s adorable! His girlfriend is a good friend of Chrissy’s, Liz, who I’ve met before and thought was very sweet. Right when we pulled up to the reception we started talking to them and complimented Brandon on his outfit and he went on and on telling a hilarious story about how it was tailored wrong. It cracked me up! He’s one of those people that just draws you in and we started talking about how HE should start a blog. I totally hope he does! Anyways they are a super cute couple and I really hope we get to see them again sometime!

I paused to say that in order to say this: he was SO funny the whole night! He was cracking jokes and just being silly. He paid Brandon to dance with him when they had the dollar dance thing AND he caught the garter! It was priceless!!! My cousin, Meghan (which it was GREAT that she came and so good to see her doing so well!) caught the bouquet and the dj guy made the Brandon kid put it on with his TEETH hahaha. 

Here are more moments from the night:

enjoying the CHEESE!

Liz dancing with sweet sleeping Gavin

with the groom

Joey (Jason’s cousin) became my new “BFF” and personal photographer 🙂

Since mostly everyone was either dancing, drunk, or both, I kinda ran slim on people to hang out with! I’m SO thankful that Brandon and Chrissy used Javon for their photography as he did my wedding too (and is THE BEST PHOTOGRAPHER EVER!!!) and we’ve remained friends since then! We are the type friends who really, really like each other but never hang out as we’re both SO busy all the time. But since he was working the wedding (and therefore wasn’t dancing or drinking, which he doesn’t do either!) I just kinda stuck with him some during the reception while he took pictures 🙂 I’m thankful that he was there and so glad that this wedding brought us closer together! Zach, Kye and I got dinner the other night with his little family and we had a great time (it only took us over 3 years to FINALLY do it!). 

Chrissy LOVES Lady Gaga, I thought it was cute how she and Brandon danced one of their last songs to “Bad Romance”

you can tell this was the end of night haha! trying to get a pic with Meghan and Aunt Gretchen but a few other people jumped on in!

They were all having such a blast dancing it up that the reception went on into the night! Several people had already made their way home (as many had to drive back home for work the next day) but I wanted to be sure to be there until the very end and I wanted to see them off! Here I am with Uncle Chip ready to blow some bubbles on the new couple before they headed off to ROME for their honeymoon!

I know it’s out of order but I’m doing ONE more wedding weekend post (I know, there have been like 50!) devoted just to the getaway car up next!

Emily Parker
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